Okay, sounds a bit depressing, but my main prediction for 2018 is that we are going to see more financial crime.
But, on the upside, the rapidly developing FinTech and RegTech sector can help reduce this worrying trend.
Let’s look at some of the facts first though.
London is a financial hub which attracts growing businesses, but it also attracts high levels of financial crime. The social and economic costs of serious and organised crime to the UK were assessed recently to be a whopping £24bn, whilst the cost of global money laundering has been previously estimated at an even more staggering US$1.6tn.
What's more, the British Bankers Association has estimated financial crime compliance costs its members £5bn per year! That's really quite difficult to believe.
The good news is that here at Railsbank, we are doing our bit to help.
We help our clients with real time fraud detection.
Via the compliance firewall, we help them prevent fraud, catch if it happens and reduce false positives so compliance time is invested in positive investigations. Our clients build the rules and create typologies specific to their business, industry and jurisdiction.
Our system has the flexibility to apply the local knowledge and create a bespoke fraud prevention programme. it’s also nimble enough that the MLRO can add, or delete rules as they see new patterns of fraud emerge.
So there we are, on one hand 2018 will see more financial crime, but on the other, companies like Railsbank are doing their bit to combat the situation.
Jo is Product & Compliance Manager at Railsbank